Song two on the Imaginarium Album. Used lyrics for no reason. Couldn't in the first chapter 'cause the song is in Finnish and who wants to try and read Finnish while on a Black Butler kick?

Still just borrowing the characters for fun.

~O~

Chapter 2: Storytime

I am the voice of Never-Never-Land

The innocence, the dreams of every man

I am the empty crib of Peter Pan

A silent kite against the blue, blue sky,

Every chimney, every moonlit sight

I am the story that will read you real

Every memory that you hold dear

~O~

His young master had always had a rather odd obsession with fairy tales. It was odd, but Sebastian had never really questioned it openly. While his master's body lay soulless, while Sebastian travelled, carrying the tiny frame from one clue to the next, chasing rumors and clues concerning the Earl's ring, Sebastian had read Ciel fairy tales. It was rather silly, reading to an inanimate body, but Sebastian could never stop himself from doing it. Every night, he read a chapter from a book, a section from a short story, something fantastical to his beautiful young master.

And now that his master was bound to eternity, same as him, Sebastian found himself reflecting back on all those stories. And when they returned to the ruined Phantomhive manor, decades after it had been abandoned and forgotten, the first thing the younger did was check on the state of his library. Strangely enough, the various robbers and thieves that sought to make a quick fortune with useless materials and antiques from an old house had left all his books alone. It made Ciel snort at their stupidity and he often commented on the greed of men, making Sebastian non-too-gently remind him that the boy had also been human.

But he was human no longer, but his obsessions remained the same. So as Ciel ran a gloved hand down the spine of an old and thick fairy tale book written in German—a gift from Clause on his seventh birthday—Sebastian noticed the young master smile to himself. The butler quietly dismissed himself to fix the damage to the interior, while not changing the exterior very much. Let the humans think the manor was haunted; it would just make for a peaceful existence for the two demons. But as soon as he turned to leave, his master's voice bid him back and he quickly returned to his master's side.

"Yes, my lord?" He asked, demonic powers shifting underneath his unmoving form in preparation to grant the wish of the small form before him. Ciel held up the old book before his butler's face and casually spoke. "Do you know what this is?" He asked and Sebastian raised an eyebrow in slight confusion. "A fairy tale book, young master." He answered nonetheless. Ciel rolled his eyes. "Of course it is, you git. But what is it?" He asked with a playful glint in his eyes. Never being one for riddles he knew he could not solve, Sebastian sighed. "I do not know, young master. Care to enlighten me?" He asked and Ciel smirked. "It's a collection of the most well known stories throughout Germany and parts of France and Spain. It's a rare find." He said and Sebastian nodded.

"Of course my master would have such a book in his collection. It fits a lord-" "Oh, hush, Sebastian." Ciel said with a slightly annoyed roll of his eyes. "Do you know all the fairy tales, Sebastian?" He asked and Sebastian nodded. "Of course I do." He said in his 'hell of a butler' tone that made Ciel smirk wider. "I've never been one for happy endings." He said and when Sebastian nodded at the obvious statement, Ciel continued. "And luckily, fairy tales rarely have them." He said with a smirk. He opened the book and turned to a random page after random page, listing off things. "Killing your step mother to influence your father's marriage choices, being raped in your sleep and waking to having children, suicide over a failed love affair, outwitting the Devil and killing his wife, my goodness Sebastian. These "heroes" did more than I ever did." He said with a smirk. Sebastian nodded slowly. "Don't forget, my lord, the villains in those tails also received judgment. Dancing in red-hot shoes until killed, tearing in two, being eaten by bears, getting eyes pecked out by birds, many fairy tales have gruesome endings for villains." He said and Ciel nodded with a smirk.

"These stories also have a lot to do with tricking witches, escaping demons or deals with the devil." Ciel commented mostly to himself as Sebastian's eyes flashed demonic pink. "My predecessor would often read these stories to me when I was younger, telling me to learn from the mistakes these fictional people made." He said and Sebastian chuckled. "Seems you didn't head those words, my young lord." He taunted and Ciel shut the book with a thundering slam in his two hands, sending an explosion of dust into the air. "Not a one. And look where is has gotten me." He said, standing and crossing over to the large worn hole in the wall. Plants had begun to over take the hole, but a dying sun shone through the holes of the weak, covering Ciel's form with spots of golden sunshine. He folded his hands behind his back and looked out into the sun with his bi-colored eyes, the contract mark burning strongly against the light of the sun. "I am living those fairy tales now, Sebastian." He said quietly.

"I am the villain, the hero, the princess even. I have played all those parts and am now at the end of all fairytales. Their stories ended. Mine will not." He said, voice even and no sadness detectable. But Sebastian knew his master better than that. "Then we will simply rewrite those stories." He said and Ciel turned to him slowly with an eyebrow raised in curiosity. "Rewrite the stories?" He said and Sebastian nodded, his smiled demonically serene. "This is your story time, young master, so how does the story go?" He asked and Ciel smirked. "Yes." He said as his butler approached, the elder boldly wrapping his long arms around the younger like wings. "I will read myself real."

~O~

Crap ending. Oh well.

Next chapter is darker.

Fairytales mentioned (in order by mentioning): Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, The Little Mermaid, Hansel and Gretel (an older French version), Snow White, Rumplestilksin, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, a more modern Cinderella

Petra Jade